About Me

I'm a big reader. A couple of years ago, I read Harold Bloom's The Western Canon and decided to start trying to read the books listed in the back. The problem then became that a lot of them draw heavily on the bible, which I had not read. I decided the translation I wanted was the King James, as it has had the most influence on the English language. So I bought The King James Study Bible, which bills itself as a conservative, but broad, study method.
Har! It turns out this particular bible was originally published by Jerrry Falwell's Liberty University. It also turns out that NO annotated KJV takes a secular or even ecumenical perspective, they all come at it from the evangelical protestant viewpoint. If I wanted to understand this sucker, I would have to do it myself. Hence a blog, to clarify my thoughts on what I'm reading.
Any time I talk about Jerry, I am referring to Jerry Falwell and his band of biblical editors.

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Saturday, August 7, 2010

1 Kings, Chapter 19

Jezebel hears what Elijah did with the prophets and sends him a nice little death threat that she's going to do the same to him by the following nightfall. Elijah runs off into the wilderness, where he finally sits down under a juniper tree and prays to die.

He doesn't get his wish, and is awakened by an angel, who gives him water and cake. Angel food cake? Whatever it is, it sustains him for the next 40 days until he gets to Mount Horeb, where he sleeps in a cave. God speaks to him and asks why he's there. Elijah claims that only he keeps god's covenant, and the other Israelites want to kill him for it. Well, telling people they aren't righteous usually gets that response.

God tells him to leave the cave, then sends an earthquake, a wind, a fire and a small voice. Elijah hears the voice and goes back into the cave. It asks him what he's doing there. He repeats the bit about being the only true follower left. God tells him to go to Syria and anoint Hazael king, then Jehu the king of Israel then Elisha his prophet. He'll take care of the rest, namely that Jehu will kill anyone Hazael misses, and anyone Hazael misses, Elisha will get. All except his 7000 true believers.

Elijah then finds Elisha and tells him he's now the prophet. Elisha pauses to say goodbye with a barbecue, then follows Elijah.